


Wildflowers

by Melusine11



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, F/M, Fluff, Hair Braiding, Not Canon Compliant, Romantic Fluff, SO, Written Pre- Rise of Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:14:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21974152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melusine11/pseuds/Melusine11
Summary: “I could stay here forever,” he murmurs, and Rey smiles, forehead against his before she adjusts enough to be able to brush a kiss against first his nose, and then his lips.“Wouldn’t you get lonely?” she asks, sitting back up, and Ben’s hands fall from her hair, down over her arm before he tangles his fingers with her own.“Not with you here.” He lifts their hands and presses a kiss to her palm and then her wrist, smiling when she laughs.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 18
Kudos: 123





	Wildflowers

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this back in 2018 for Reyloveweek and was thinking about it today and realized it only exists on my tumblr page, but I feel like we kind of need it in light of recent events. So I hope if you need it, you can find some comfort in this little one-shot.

“Let us dance in the sun, with wildflowers in our hair…”  
\- Susan Polis Schutz

Rey finds herself compulsively picking light blue flowers while she talks. Such a rare find on Jakku, and here she is, in a field of them as far as the eye can see. She sits and tells Ben about the time she walked in on Chewie while he was sleeping, but didn’t know at first, because it just looked like a pile of porgs, and she keeps picking flowers, building a mountain by her side. Ben lays, sprawled across the ground, head resting in her lap, and looking far more relaxed than Rey has ever seen.

She listens to him talk about the history of the planet they’re on about the caves of kyber that they explored earlier, about its utter abandonment when Ilum became the preferred place to retrieve the crystals. He closes his eyes and tells her a dramatic story about a supposed curse on the planet that developed after everyone had left, and when he falls silent, he allows her barrage of questions with a smile.

“It feels weird,” Rey whispers, fingers brushing the ends of his hair, “to be the only ones here.” Ben hums, shifting below her, an arm reaching up to tuck a hand under her calf, but says nothing else.

Rey watches him for a while, sunlight dancing across his face as he rests and her fingers run through his hair. She traces the tip of his ear with a thumb and he hums again, eyes drifting open to look up at her, lips stretching into a soft smile.

“It’s peaceful,” he counters, reaching up with his free hand to gently clasp the back of her head, bringing it down to his. “I could stay here forever,” he murmurs, and Rey smiles, forehead against his before she adjusts enough to be able to brush a kiss against first his nose, and then his lips.

“Wouldn’t you get lonely?” she asks, sitting back up, and Ben’s hands fall from her hair, down over her arm before he tangles his fingers with her own.

“Not with you here.” He lifts their hands and presses a kiss to her palm and then her wrist, smiling when she laughs.

“Sap,” she teases, pulling away when he tries to kiss her wrist again, “stop, that tickles,” she pleads with another laugh, nearly launching him from her lap when his teeth scrape against her skin. “Ben, please.”

He releases her with a final kiss to her palm and settles on her lap again, his free hand now falling to splay across his stomach. Rey lets her own hand fall to his chest, the other resuming its trek through his hair as his eyes fall closed once more. She feels the rise and fall of his chest as he breathes, feels it become more languid minutes later and her mouth drops open in shock.

“Ben,” she whispers, tugging gently at his hair, but there’s no answer. It’s an easy choice to let him sleep, there on her lap in a field full of flowers. She watches as the flowers sway with the wind, and her gaze drifts to the pile of them she had created.

Months ago, she never would have dared, but so many things have changed since then, especially the two of them. She plucks up a flower with a hum of delight and sits it on her knee. Her fingers are still clumsy with this task, but she knows she’s gotten better at braiding. Leia was less prone to frowning at her results when she allowed Rey to practice on her these days, and sometimes Rey thought she did an okay job on her own hair. Rose complimented it. Once. She’s never braided Ben’s hair though, always too worried over her sudden loss of deftness and the sheer implications that came along with them. He’s braided her hair. Twice.

Nothing she’s doing now resembles any kind of Alderaanian braid though. There’s no ceremony or meaning behind what she’s doing, other than a sudden desperate need to see it through. She can feel how tense she is when she separates out a small section of Ben’s hair to work with and forces herself to just breathe. It takes her a handful of tries to figure out a method, but once she’s figured it out. Her grin is almost manic.

In an effort to keep the braids from unraveling she starts weaving them together, too, and she’s only halfway done, but she’s mildly jealous of Ben. He barely stirs when she shifts around under him so she can access the other side of his head. She tucks even more flowers into the numerous braids once she’s done and smiles at her handiwork.

“Is it your turn, now?” Ben’s voice is a sleepy rumble in her lap and Rey jumps at the sudden noise.

“How long have you been awake?” she asks, flicking a flower over his cheek, watching as it twitches when the petals dance along his scar.

“Long enough, I didn’t want to startle you.” A hand comes up to gingerly touch his hair and then he sits up, swinging around to face her.

“I’m not completely done,” she grumbles, shifting around him so she can join the two sides together and add more flowers. “There,” she announces, with a pat to his shoulder, “a flower crown.” She stands with a groan and stretches before laughing when Ben grips her hand and pulls her back down into his lap.

Ben’s fingers work quickly, pulling her hair loose from the tie she had put it in this morning. He hands it to her with a flourish and then finger combs through her hair. Rey squirms in his lap and he clicks his tongue at her, one hand falling to her hip to still her.

“Rey,” it’s a whisper against the skin of her shoulder, and she shivers, “stay still, daylight's fading.” He kisses her shoulder when she settles and then gets to work. Rey tries to help, by handing him flowers, but he pushes her hand away, “you move too much when you do that,” he explains, “here.” Then he’s dumping the rest of her pile into her lap and she laughs, before scooping a few up to hand over her shoulder to him. They work in tandem like this while the sun sets, and Rey watches content as orange, pink and blue paint their way across the sky. 

She can’t stop the gasp that escapes her when she sees it, and she taps and Ben’s thigh. “Ben.”

“Just a few more, and then - oh!” Rey tries to turn, but he’s quick to stop her. “Hang on, let me finish.” It’s a trial in patience as she waits for him to finish, and when he finally declares that he’s done she shoots to her feet, jaw falling open when she turns to look at him.

She offers her hand to him and he takes it, standing swiftly and swaying close to her, eyes moving over her as though he can’t decide where to focus. “You’re beautiful,” she blurts, staring at him in awe.

“I’m sure I pale in comparison to you,” he tells her, and she smiles up at him.

The flowers are glowing, a soft kind of light, a paler blue than her saber. It makes him look like some sort of ethereal being that sprung up from the ground. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she whispers, spinning in a slow circle, “it’s like we’re in a sea of light.” She ignores the disgruntled noise Ben makes and rolls her eyes when she picks up his stray thoughts of her being his sea of light when they come through the bond, unchecked. “What is with you today?” she asks when his hand catches her waist as she comes back around.

“Nothing,” he defends, shoulders tensing and Rey hums as she runs her hands up his chest and over his shoulders. He relaxes with a sigh, other hand coming up to grasp one of hers, “I just have a hard time believing you are real sometimes.”

“Well, I am real,” she assures him with a smile.

“I know.” He leans down, closing his eyes as he presses his forehead against hers once more as he starts to sway. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Rey keeps her eyes open, content to enjoy the sight of him, bathed in the gentle light of the flowers as he dances them around the field.

“Marry me?” he asks, slowing them to a stop pulling back to better catch her gaze, he smiles at her and gives her hand a gentle squeeze when she doesn’t respond. “I mean it.”

“I know you do.” Is the first thing Rey’s brain thinks to say, and she winces. “Sorry, that’s not what -” she takes a deep breath and pulls her hands from him. “Ben,” she starts, and can practically see him falling away from her, has a brief flash of the last time he asked this of her. How different things are now. “Wait,” she reaches up to grip his face. “I just said I love you, so don’t do anything stupid.” He blinks and she watches his Adam's Apple bob as he swallows. “I love you, Ben. Yes. Yes, I will marry you.” She can feel the tears gathering in her eyes and sees them mirrored in his. She sniffs as she smiles, brushing a flower that is starting to droop off of his forehead.

Ben swallows hard again before pulling Rey to him, his lips pressing kisses to every part of her face that they touch, and Rey laughs until she can’t because he’s kissing her properly now. And maybe, she thinks as he murmurs words of adoration against her mouth, that mix with their tears, maybe they won’t stay here forever, but they’ll at least stay a while.


End file.
